Dialogue of Death and Entropy at (Almost) the End of the Universe
“Ah, we meet again, here, at the end of all things,” the tall figure in black said. It floated in the void, and somehow its cloak drifted behind it.
The girl smiled.
“I always liked that part of the book,” she said. Two long braids of silvery hair waved and mingled with the pink tails of a bow. She wore nothing else.
The girl hovered up and slid on top of Death’s shoulder. They stayed silent for some time, staring at a single point of light in the blackness. It was fading.
“Here it comes,” Death said.
There was a blink, and then total darkness.
“Thus it ends,” the girl said.
Death nodded.
“I want to thank you,” it said.
“What for?”
“For letting me stay. That was the last star. I wasn’t really needed here.”
“Well,” the girl said. “In a sense that was the last star alive, wasn’t it? And who am I to define what life is?”
Death smiled, though with Death, that was always difficult to perceive.
“I guess I should go,” it said.
The girl’s braids tangled themselves around its cloak and played hide-and-seek with each other within its endless pockets.
“Well, there’s still the black holes left,” the girl said. “They’ll take some time to dissolve completely. Would you mind to keep me company till then?”
“I’d love to,” Death said.
“Cool. Let’s go.”
Entropy took Death’s hand, and they left together.
~~~~
This was my entry for FlashFloodJournal, the National Flash-Fiction Day Journal organized by the National Flash-Fiction Day on June 24–25, 2017. Sadly, it wasn’t accepted, since it didn’t fit with what they were looking for. I still like it a lot, so here it is.
I drew inspiration for the story from the illustration above by the extremely talented Otto Schmidt. The image has links to his facebook and professional sites.
